The bottom line: To sell a junk car in Colorado, sign the title over exactly as your name appears on it. Every owner on the front must sign, and no notary is needed. A bill of sale is required only if the price is not on the title, but keep one anyway.
For a lost title, order a duplicate with Form DR 2539A for $8.20 through myDMV.
In the Denver metro and North Front Range, a car that changes owners normally needs a passing emissions test. A car with a major mechanical failure is exempt if you give the buyer Form DR 2023 and it is towed away.
Report the sale on myDMV within 5 days, since removing the plates doesn’t release you from liability. Keep your plates, then return them to your county office or recycle them.
In Colorado, the typical offer in our data for a junk car 10 years or older is $680.
What would buyers pay for your junk car in Colorado?Fill in one form, including whether you have the title, and see which buyers make an offer.
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
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Process ease 15% 5/5
- Buys any car in any condition, running or not
- Free towing, with no fees taken off the offer
- You can cancel before pickup at no cost
- Pays by check on the spot at pickup
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
- Buys damaged cars, even ones that can't be driven
- The engine and transmission must still be in
- Free towing, included with every offer
- Picks up within 48 hours, sometimes the same day
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Offer amount 30% 4.5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 2/5
- Owned by Copart, the salvage auction company
- Buys almost any vehicle with a motor, running or not
- Free towing, and it handles the title transfer
- Hands you a check at pickup, or mails it
Automated assistant: general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
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How Do You Sell a Junk Car in Colorado?
Six steps, from the first quote to the paperwork after the car has gone.
Step 1: Get quotes from several buyers
Each quote form asks for the year, make, model and mileage, your ZIP code, and whether the car starts. It then asks what is wrong with the car and whether the title is in your name.
If a form wants the VIN, read it from the small plate at the base of the windshield on the driver’s side. Your registration card and your insurance card carry the same number.
The figure you get rests on your answers. Say on the form if any part of the car is missing.
Get at least three quotes. None of them commits you to anything.
Step 2: Check your paperwork
The driver needs the paper title in your name and a photo ID with the same name on it.
Title required to sell: yes.
Odometer disclosure: required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs exempt.
If the title is missing, damaged or in someone else’s name, fix that before you accept an offer.
Every form you might need
A junk sale with the title in hand needs none of these. They come up when a document is missing or the car is not in your name.
Replacement title
Use: Form DR 2539A
For a title that is lost, stolen or too damaged to sign. Fee and wait.
Odometer disclosure
Only when the odometer rule covers your car. The rule.
Release of liability
Use: None required (report the sale on myDMV or at your county office)
Tells the DMV the car is no longer yours. When and how.
Selling without a title
The title work falls on the buyer. What Colorado allows.
Inherited vehicle
Moves a dead owner’s car into your name. The estate route.
Step 3: Accept an offer and book the pickup
Accept the offer online or by phone. A local tow company then contacts you to set a pickup window of a few hours.
Tell the tow company if the car is up a dirt road or in a spot a flatbed cannot reach.
You meet the driver, sign the title, and take the money. If someone else will do that for you, tell the buyer when you book.
Step 4: Get the car ready for the tow truck
Move anything parked in front of the car so the flatbed can back up to it.
Take everything out of the car before the truck comes: glove box, trunk, door pockets, under the seats and the spare tire well. Look for toll transponders and garage door openers, which are easy to miss.
Gather the keys you have.
Plates stay with you. Take them off before the truck arrives.
Step 5: Sign the title and take payment
At pickup the driver compares the car with your quote answers. You then fill in the seller’s part of the title, sign it, and give it to the driver.
Payment is usually cash or check. It depends on the tow company. You are paid before the car goes on the truck, so count the cash or read the check before it moves.
Keep any paper the driver leaves with you, and check your inbox, because some buyers email the bill of sale and the confirmation instead. The release of liability asks for the buyer’s name and address, and those are the company’s details from your offer confirmation, not the tow driver’s.
Title transfer: your county motor vehicle office.
Step 6: Report the sale and deal with the plates
Deadline after the sale: 5 days.
If you skip it: no specific penalty, but you may remain liable for tickets, tolls, or violations tied to the vehicle until you report the sale.
Cancel the insurance last, after the car has gone and the notice is filed. If you cancel early and the pickup moves to another day, the car sits in your driveway uninsured until the truck comes.
Colorado Junk Car Checklist
Before the Sale
At Pickup
After the Sale
What Is Your Junk Car Worth in Colorado?
The typical offer on a Colorado junk car is $680 (cars 10 years and older, 312 offers, ranked 3 of 44 states). Across the country, half of all offers on old cars fall between $375 and $1,075.
In Colorado, 36% of the junk cars quoted through our form are sedans, coupes and hatchbacks, and the typical offer on one of those is $630. The make quoted most often in Colorado is Toyota, and a typical one is offered $1,285. Buyers typically offer $490 for cars 15 years and older in Colorado, from our own quote data.
By age, Colorado offers are higher than the national figure for cars 10 to 19 years old, and the gap is widest at 13 to 14 years. For cars 20 to 24 years old the two figures are about the same, with Colorado slightly lower. The chart is our own offer data for Colorado, by age band.
Typical offer on old cars in Colorado 288 Colorado offers · 11,147 nationally · Age of car when the offer was made (years)Show the numbers
Age (years) Colorado Offers All cars nationally Offers 10-12 $1,505 78 $1,235 2,808 13-14 $1,120 36 $720 1,746 15-17 $633 58 $555 2,735 18-19 $525 50 $465 1,527 20-24 $405 66 $410 2,331 
Nothing moves the offer more than the catalytic converter. With the converter gone, and age and mileage matched, the offer against a comparable car with it moves by about -57%. If it is missing, say so on the form.
Whether the engine starts is the next thing. Against a comparable car that drives, once age and mileage are matched, a car that won’t start moves the offer by about -46%. Say on the form whether the car rolls on its wheels.
Our guide to selling a non-running car lists what to tell the buyer about a car that does not start.
Companies That Buy Junk Cars in Colorado
Peddle
Peddle buys junk, salvage, and non-running cars
- Buys junk cars anywhere in Colorado
- Offer shown on screen after you describe the car
- Comes to you and hauls the car away
- Buys used cars in any condition, junk included
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
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Process ease 15% 5/5
Peddle takes the car in whatever condition it is in. A blown engine, a failed transmission or collision damage does not stop the sale.
Wheelzy
Wheelzy buys cars in any condition, running or not
- Branches in 20 Colorado cities, Arvada to Westminster
- Free removal from any Colorado address
- Charges no dealer, title-transfer or removal fees
- Cashier's check handed over at pickup, good for same-day cashing
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
Get the quote from Wheelzy first if your title is missing, because it helps with replacement titles. It also takes cars that have not moved in years.
CashForCars
CashForCars is owned by Copart and buys cars in any condition
- Yards in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and two other towns
- The offer comes back in 60 seconds, by form or by phone
- Tows the car away free once you accept
- Buys trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, RVs and boats, not just cars
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Offer amount 30% 4.5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 2/5
Copart owns CashForCars, and the cars it collects go to Copart’s auction yards. Its five Colorado locations are all on the Front Range.
Collect all three numbers even if the first one looks fine. When two or more buyers quote the same car on the same day through our own quote form, the highest and lowest offers are typically $314 apart. In 39% of those cases the highest offer is at least double the lowest.
If the car still starts and drives and has a clean title, a private sale usually pays more than a junk buyer. Our guide to selling a car privately in Colorado covers the paperwork.
Do You Need a Smog Check to Junk a Car in Colorado?
A junk car that no longer runs falls under a different rule from an ordinary sale: a car with a major mechanical or structural failure can be sold in the program area without a test if the seller gives the buyer a written Notice of Emissions Non-Compliance (Form DR 2023) and the car is towed away; a car whose only fault is a failed test or missing emissions parts does not qualify, and the buyer must pass the test before registering it (C.R.S. 42-4-310(4)).
The junk buyer’s driver tows the car, so keep the pickup paperwork as your record that it left on a truck.
The ordinary rule for a car sold to another driver: yes, if the buyer lives in an emissions-testing county (the Denver metro and North Front Range program area).
Test fee when one is needed: $35 for 1982 and newer vehicles, $20 for 1981 and older.
If the car still drives and has failed its test, Colorado gives you these options before you take a scrap offer: a repair waiver after a second failed test and $715 of emissions-related repairs within six months, or an economic hardship waiver for an owner on public assistance; each covers one emissions cycle and is refused for a car that smokes or has missing or tampered emissions parts. Our guide to selling a car that failed emissions sets the repair bill against the offer.
Can You Sell a Junk Car Without a Title in Colorado?
Colorado’s rules on this cover what the buyer does after the sale: for a non-roadworthy vehicle with no title, the buyer has 24 months instead of 60 days to apply for a title; for a vehicle 25 years or older, the buyer can establish title without a surety bond using a bill of sale presented within 24 months of the sale.
What you file as the seller: none; the buyer files for a bonded title, or for a vehicle 25 years or older follows the In Lieu of Bond checklist DR 2462.
Say on the quote form that the title is missing, and the buyer tells you whether it can use that rule. Otherwise you have two options.
Option 1: Replace the title first. Every buyer can then quote the car.
Option 2: Sell it for parts. Parts change hands without a title, because the vehicle itself is not being transferred. Expect a slower sale.
Getting a Replacement Title in Colorado
What a replacement title takes in Colorado:
- Application: Form DR 2539A
- Where to submit: your county motor vehicle office, or online at mydmv.colorado.gov
- Fee: $8.20
- Processing time: 2 to 6 weeks
- Rush option: no.
Start the application before you accept an offer, because the pickup cannot be booked until the title is in your hand.
If the old title turns up later, use the replacement and destroy the old one.
If a lender still holds the title
No junk buyer takes a car with a loan still recorded on the title. How the lender clears it in Colorado: for a paper title, the lender signs the lien release section on the back of the title or provides a release letter on company letterhead; for an electronic lien, the lender releases it in the ELT system once the loan is paid and a new title is sent to the owner at the address the lender has on file.
Ask for the payoff figure before you get quotes. On a junk car the balance is often more than the offer, and you pay the difference.
If your title is electronic
The tow driver takes the paper title away with the car, so the copy on your phone does not complete the sale. If the paper title is lost, apply for the replacement first, and book the pickup once it is in your hand.
If the car is titled in another state
A car parked in Colorado with another state’s title can be junked here. The title has to be in your name, and you sign it the way that state’s title says.
A lost out-of-state title is replaced by the state that issued it, with that state’s form, fee and wait. Colorado cannot issue it for you.
Selling a Junk Car That Isn’t in Your Name
The buyer pays the person on the title, so ownership has to move to you before the sale.
The owner died. Colorado’s route to your name depends on whether the estate went through probate: Form DR 2712 (DMV Small Estate Affidavit), or Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration if the estate is probated.
Someone gave you the car. Colorado’s rule on a gifted car: Record the transfer as a gift with no consideration. The obligation sits with the giver, who must already have paid sales or use tax.
Someone abandoned it on your land. A car you never owned is not yours to sign over, so it goes through Colorado’s abandoned vehicle process first.
Local Dismantlers vs Online Buyers in Colorado
Selling to a local yard
A yard along the Front Range or in Grand Junction quotes on scrap weight, and the price moves with the metal market. You call each yard yourself, and some want the car delivered.
Ask whether towing is included before you agree on a figure. For a car that does not run, a paid tow can cost more than the extra the yard offers.
Selling to an online buyer
Their offer is in writing before anyone sees the car, and the tow is part of it. They also price the parts they can resell.
Three online quotes take a few minutes from your phone. Three yard quotes take three calls, and each yard can change its number when the car arrives.
Our guide to how online buyers work out an offer goes through what moves the number.
When selling it yourself makes sense
A truck or wagon with a sound drivetrain may bring more from a mechanic or a hobbyist than from any scrap buyer. Expect the sale to take weeks rather than days, and the buyer to arrive with a trailer.
Storing a Junk Car in Colorado
While you wait for a title, the car needs a legal place to sit. Colorado cities and counties each set their own rule on inoperable vehicles, and an HOA can be stricter than the city.
Keep it on your own property, off the street, behind a fence or under a cover. Hail and snow do more damage to a car left in the open, and the offer falls with the condition.
Our guide on how to store a junk car covers the rest.
Colorado Motor Vehicle Resources
Check any Colorado rule on this page against the state’s own pages.
- Motor vehicle agency: Colorado Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
- Selling a vehicle: Colorado DMV, Buying and Selling
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to sell a junk car in Colorado?
A few days from the first quote to the pickup when you have the title. The tow company tells you which day it can come once you accept.
Without the title, the replacement wait comes first.
Is a bill of sale required to junk a car in Colorado?
Bill of sale: recommended; required if the sale price is not listed on the title.
State form: DR 2173 Motor Vehicle Bill of Sale (a secure form sold by vendors), or a written equivalent.
Notarization: not required.
Keep one for your own records whatever the rule says; our bill of sale generator fills one in for you.
Does the title have to be notarized to junk a car in Colorado?
Do the plates release me from liability in Colorado?
Plates and liability: no, removing the plates alone does not release liability; file the release of liability online through myDMV.
Can I junk a car with expired registration in Colorado?
Yes. Registration is for driving on the road, and a junk car leaves on a truck. The buyer checks the title, which is what proves the car is yours.
What happens to a junk car after it is sold in Colorado?
The tow company delivers it to a salvage yard or an auction lot. Any part that can be resold is removed, and the rest of the body is crushed for scrap steel.
What if the junk car offer changes when the driver arrives in Colorado?
The offer rests on your answers, and the driver may name a lower figure if the car does not match them. If the converter is gone or the car will not roll, expect the figure to move.
Nothing obliges you to accept the lower number. Until you sign the title the car is still yours, so you can send the truck away and use one of your other quotes.
What if I lost the keys to my junk car in Colorado?
Say so on the quote form. A flatbed loads a car without starting it.
Should I repair the car or junk it in Colorado?
Put three figures side by side: the repair estimate, the best junk offer, and what buyers would offer for the repaired car. When the repair costs more than it adds, junk it.
A car with a good engine or a set of wanted wheels may bring more if you sell it for parts.
Article Update History
Colorado offers by age now come from Sell Car Advisor quote data.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
Where to Submit Duplicate Title Application
"your county motor vehicle office, or online at mydmv.colorado.gov" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"yes" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs exempt" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Release of Liability Filing Deadline
"5 days" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form DR 2539A" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Separate Odometer Disclosure Form
"no separate state form; odometer disclosure is recorded on the title or on the DR 2173 Motor Vehicle Bill of Sale" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"none; the buyer files for a bonded title, or for a vehicle 25 years or older follows the In Lieu of Bond checklist DR 2462" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Title Transfer Form
"Form DR 2712 (DMV Small Estate Affidavit), or Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration if the estate is probated" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$35 for 1982 and newer vehicles, $20 for 1981 and older" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Does Plate Surrender Release Liability?
"no, removing the plates alone does not release liability; file the release of liability online through myDMV" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Conditions to Sell Without Title
"for a non-roadworthy vehicle with no title, the buyer has 24 months instead of 60 days to apply for a title; for a vehicle 25 years or older, the buyer can establish title without a surety bond using a bill of sale presented within 24 months of the sale" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Electronic Title Handling Note
"Colorado offers eTitle, a secure electronic representation of the title through myColorado; it does not replace the paper title." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Colorado Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
How to Complete a Gift Transfer
"Record the transfer as a gift with no consideration. The obligation sits with the giver, who must already have paid sales or use tax" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Exempt if Dismantled
"a car with a major mechanical or structural failure can be sold in the program area without a test if the seller gives the buyer a written Notice of Emissions Non-Compliance (Form DR 2023) and the car is towed away; a car whose only fault is a failed test or missing emissions parts does not qualify, and the buyer must pass the test before registering it (C.R.S. 42-4-310(4))" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Fail: Help Available
"a repair waiver after a second failed test and $715 of emissions-related repairs within six months, or an economic hardship waiver for an owner on public assistance; each covers one emissions cycle and is refused for a car that smokes or has missing or tampered emissions parts" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"regular plates cannot be moved to your next vehicle; personalized or specialty plates transfer at your county motor vehicle office when the next car is registered, and registration credit with more than a month left transfers there too, in person only" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"for a paper title, the lender signs the lien release section on the back of the title or provides a release letter on company letterhead; for an electronic lien, the lender releases it in the ELT system once the loan is paid and a new title is sent to the owner at the address the lender has on file" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Typical offer on old cars in Colorado, Junk Car Value Statistics
"288 Colorado offers · 11,147 nationally" Accessed Oct. 16, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 10 figures from 17,628 instant cash offers, and 4 figures from same-day quotes by several buyers" Accessed Oct. 19, 2026
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